Fringe far-right parties agree to terms of joint election run

The far-right Otzma Yehudit and Noam parties announced Wednesday they have reached an agreement to run together in the upcoming elections for the Knesset.

Under the agreement, the two parties will run as a “technical bloc” rather than as a united faction, with the top spot on the joint slate going to Otzma Yehudit’s Itamar Ben Gvir. The second and third spots would go to representatives of Noam, while Otzma Yehudit member Baruch Marzel will be placed fourth.

The agreement was handed over to the parties’ rabbis for approval.

A Channel 12 poll aired Tuesday said Otzma Yehudit and Noam would receive 1.2 percent and 0.3%, respectively, of the vote, which combined would fall well short of the 3.25% needed to enter the Knesset.

Otzma Yehudit, whose leaders are self-described disciples of the late extremist rabbi Meir Kahane, and Noam, which is campaigning on combating LGBT acceptance, first announced Sunday they had agreed to a joint run.

That announcement came as Union of Right-Wing Parties chairman Rafi Peretz declared that he had agreed to give New Right leader Ayelet Shaked the top spot on a joint right-wing electoral ticket for the September 17 elections. The two factions finalized the merger deal on Monday, with the new slate to be called United Right.

Otzma Yehudit ran in the URWP in the last elections as part of an alliance brokered by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, but split off over what it said was Peretz’s failure to honor the terms of their electoral pact.

The extremist party has since held talks to again team up with URWP, and Shaked said earlier this week she would continue to work to bring it into the United Right, though the sides have been at odds over what spot on the list Ben Gvir would receive.

Speaking Wednesday with Army Radio, Ben Gvir pinned the blame for the impasse on Naftali Bennett, the No. 2 in New Right.

“There is someone who wants to put a spoke in [Shaked’s] wheels,” he said.

He also asserted Otzma Yehudit’s inclusion in the United Right would “save the right.”

Later Wednesday, the United Right publicly called for Otzma Yehudit to accept the number 8 and 13 spots on the slate, saying the offer was “a very fair proposal that guarantees you the representation of two members in the next Knesset.”

Ben Gvir responded by saying that his party “has already offered far-reaching compromises, but the [United Right] prefers its ego over the good of the right-wing government.”

With the Thursday night deadline for parties to submit their final list of candidates approaching, Netanyahu has been pressing for United Right to take in Otzma Yehudit, saying right-wing votes would be wasted if the latter fails to enter the Knesset.

United Right has rebuffed his efforts and instead called for the prime minister’s Likud party to reserve a spot for Ben Gvir. Likud has refused.

In the previous election, Likud agreed to place one URWP MK on its slate as part of URWP’s merger agreement with Otzma Yehudit.

Jacob Magid contributed to this report.